After spending decades trying to prove he is the sailor Life Magazine captured celebrating the end of World War II with a kiss, Houston forensic artist Lois Gibson declared he is the man, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The news came just in time for McDuffie's 80th birthday on Aug. 3 and the 62nd anniversary of the kiss on Aug. 14.

"It's a big relief," he said. "I thought I'd die before anybody believed me. I took polygraph tests. It's really been disheartening and disgusting to cope with all of these idiots pretending to be the sailor."

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Since Gibson announced her findings, McDuffie has been featured on Good Morning America, MSNBC and BBC Radio. Articles and blogs about the kissing sailor have appeared worldwide.

The north Houston resident didn't necessarily want all of this attention, he only wanted the truth to surface.

And he's been hoping to hear from some of his shipmates from World War II.

That hasn't happened. But last month, he heard from his former high school teacher from Kannapolis, N.C. She read about him in the newspaper and contacted his cousin. McDuffie was so touched he made the trip to visit "Miss Jackson," now in her early 90s, a couple of weeks ago.

"It was beyond my expectations," he said. "I got to hold her hand and hug her. It was awesome seeing her."

McDuffie was 15 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943. By that time, most of his friends and older brother, W. D., were serving in the military.

"I decided I would just join the Navy and help get the war over," McDuffie said. "I was probably crazy."

But McDuffie got the paperwork he needed to enlist under age 18 and had a friend from school sign his parents' names and help him notarize it.

McDuffie would serve on two cargo ships, the S.S. Del Rio and the S.S. Alexander Lillington, along with M.V., motor vessel, Cape Lookout. Initially, he and his crew were picking up magnesium ore in Cuba and delivering it to the United States, where it would be used to strengthen steel.

By 1944, they were delivering more deadly cargo: 500-pound bombs, small arms ammunition, barbed wire and mustard gas.

"Crossing the ocean wasn't always fun," McDuffie said. "There were storms. If you missed the convoy, you could get sunk by a submarine."

But there were bright spots. McDuffie had a girl in New York City, and he got to see her most every time his ship stopped there. He was on his way to see her Aug. 14, 1945 when the news hit New York that Japan had surrendered.

"I came out of the subway, and this lady said, 'Sailor, I'm so happy for you. The war is over.' "

McDuffie's thoughts immediately went to his brother, then a prisoner of war.

"I ran into the street yelling," McDuffie said.

When a nurse in Times Square turned to McDuffie smiling, her arms open, he ran up and embraced her.

"It was a nice kiss," he recalled. "I heard someone running and stopping right in front of us. I raised my head up, and it was a photographer. I tried to get my hand out of the way so I wouldn't block her face, and I kissed her just long enough for him to take the picture."

In later accounts, Eisenstaedt claimed McDuffie had been kissing nurses all over Times Square. That, McDuffie said, simply is not true.

"That was the only girl I kissed."

McDuffie was away at sea when the Life Magazine cover featuring him and the nurse came out. He wouldn't see it until 20 years later.

"I was more tickled to see (shipmates) Jack Holmes and Bob Little in the background than myself. I knew it was me."

That was that until 1980, when Life invited the nurse and sailor to come forward.

More than a dozen men claimed to be the kissing sailor and met for a photo shoot with Eisenstaedt. McDuffie contacted that magazine, but he was told he was too late. And for the next 27 years, few took him seriously.

"If I hadn't seen Lois on television I wouldn't have lived to see this happen," said McDuffie.

At his request, Gibson compared body measurements of McDuffie to enlargements of the photo, along with the bone structure of McDuffie and the other men who claimed to be the sailor. Ultimately, she concluded McDuffie is the sailor. That was a moment of vindication for McDuffie, said daughter Glenda Bell, his only surviving child of three.

"It makes me really, really proud of him for finally getting the attention and recognition he deserves," the Arlington resident said.

Aside from his war service, one of McDuffie's proudest periods occurred when he returned to one of his early loves, baseball, and became a homerun hitting centerfielder for the Washington Senators of Virginia.

"I just loved to hit a baseball," he said.

He would have kept hitting, but his wife at the time urged him to stay with a better-paying job with the postal service.

He also worked in construction, drove a cab and owned a furniture store. McDuffie had to leave his final job, hauling oil field equipment, last October to have lung surgery, but says he's doing well now.